GREENWOOD, La. - Two shotgun blasts were fired into the home of the town's mayor, who says he had been cursed at before but never physically threatened.
Police stepped up security after the shots were fired early Monday at the home of Ernest Lampkins, who was elected in 2004 as the first black mayor of the small, predominantly white northwest Louisiana town.
One slug left a hole the size of a baseball in a glass panel separating the living room from the family area, and another lodged in a wall. No one inside the house was injured.
Police Chief J.D. Dunn said he didn't know why it happened or who was responsible.
Officers increased security at the mayor's home after the shots were fired Monday and used handheld metal detectors to check people entering Monday's Board of Aldermen meeting.
"Anytime you shoot in someone's house, there is intent to kill," Lampkins said.
The mayor said about 10 people in the town of some 2,600 residents oppose everything he does. "They're really anti-administration. They are not team players. They are citizens who have a vendetta," he said. "I'm not saying they have anything to do with it, but they have created an atmosphere to making such things possible."
"It could be I'm black or the fact that I defeated the acting mayor," he said.
Lampkins, a retired educator, has lived in Greenwood, 10 miles west of Shreveport, for about 20 years. He said he found a "For Sale" sign posted in his yard in December but has never faced physical threats.
"I enjoy what I do in terms of being mayor," he said. "The only thing that has bothered me is the invasion of my home and the personal safety of my family."
Caddo Parish Sheriff Steve Prator said charges in the case will depend on motive. "If it was intended to intimidate, then you have a realm of hate-crime," he said.
Greenwood is about 150 miles north of Westlake, where Gerald Washington, that town's first black mayor, was found shot to death in a parking lot on Dec. 30, a few days before he was to take office. The coroner and the sheriff pronounced Washington's death a suicide, but his family and supporters have questioned the ruling.
Only 2600 people, but the sheriff doesn't know who did it ??? It was probably him.
Just makes you realize how awesome New York is.
At the very least....please post a OT: if this is not basketball related
My bad Andrew, won't happen again.
Man people are so racist outside of the city its ridiculous. When I went to school at Ohio State I was shocked at how ignorant people are. Im biracial myself, puertorican/white, and I just grew up in the bronx thinking that racism was an overblown problem. But its really bad outside of the big cities.
don't get it twisted. racism is EVERYWHERE. new york has come a LONG way since the 80's with bensonhurst and howard's beach but there are still segregated areas of the city that "stick with their own". it is not as bad as a city than say phill, detroit or baston, but it still has its share of problems.
Man people are so racist outside of the city its ridiculous. When I went to school at Ohio State I was shocked at how ignorant people are. Im biracial myself, puertorican/white, and I just grew up in the bronx thinking that racism was an overblown problem. But its really bad outside of the big cities.
I grew up in northern states but all of my family is from down south particularly Louisana racism down there can be very much in your face KKK flag whole nine yards. But in the big cities do not think for one minute that racism does not happen there as well. Now maybe you probably won't be seeing a Neo Nazi rallies anytime soon in BX but racism is still very pervasive throughout American society whether you live in the Bronx, Idaho, Alabama, or wherever. True story I was walking with my friend who was white and I myself am black. This lady asked my friend for a lighter he said no she than (no joke) said to me "I see your busy with your n*gger" and than said it again. This happened in Manhattan this summer.
